The wireless infrastructure Ford is deploying for parts replenishment and vehicle tracking comes from WhereNet Corp. Inventory replenishment is driven by Ford's Auto Call, part of its synchronous material-replenishment trigger system, with assistance from about 58 antennas around the compound. Replenishment signals are triggered wirelessly as vehicles pass over a radio-frequency reader mounted in the floor, indicating what parts are required on the assembly line.
WhereNet also enables SmartEye, Ford's method to identify and track vehicles with a metal bar code cut into each vehicle's conveyer, which carries the vehicle through the assembly plant. This bar code uniquely identifies the vehicle as it passes through a set of readers. The information gathered by the readers is transmitted wirelessly to a database to compare with the customer order. "Through the quality-control process, as vehicles arrive at each test station, the technology enables operators to easily detect quality concerns," Herman says. The system also monitors the exact options each vehicle should have.
The new assembly plant isn't the only facility Ford is outfitting with innovative technology. Braintech Inc., which manufactures 3-D-vision-guided robotics, revealed last week that the automaker has placed an order for a Braintech system it will use to manufacture automotive transmissions. This summer, Braintech will install the robotics at Ford's automatic-transmission operations facility in Livonia, Mich. Other Braintech systems are operating at, or ordered for, the automaker's power-train and engine-casting plants.
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